Monday, March 22, 2010

Street wear


In this economy people are becoming more creative in utilizing what they already have. And this definitley means reinventing their clothing.

At one time reinventing clothing was called wearing retro or vintage. Today it can be categorized as survival.

Please contibute to this post;

How have you taken an existing garment or accessory and reinvented it to fit your style today?
The dress shown is very wearable today. At least for me!
Please share

Saturday, March 13, 2010

listen, think and then speak a lesson in customer service

As stated a few months ago I will discuss openly many events that take place in the retail sector. Today is not exception. traveling to the Natick Collective yesterday with a friend we started off a good day in Nordstrom's and then it got worse. Our first stop was at the cosmetic counter where we were determined to buy a new shade from the new line Rouge Coco at the Chanel counter. We did not see the testers and a sales associate came over and asked if we needed help. My friend to remain nameless(just incase she doesn't want to be identified) asked about the new collection. The girl basically had not idea what we were talking about. Once she found the sample tray behind the cash wrap and not accessible to the consumer she had a difficult time finding the specific color that had made the "Hottest lipstick color" shade that we inquired about. It was starting to become a disaster and even though she said she would order it, we ventured to the next department "shoes" glorious shoes. my friend is returning a pair so while she is doing that I find a great pair of Tory Burch shoes "wedges" that I wanted to try on. A young "woman" approaches me and I ask her for my size. She then turns and tells a guy what I am looking for. Ok, thinking that he is a runner, no problem. Within 3 minutes, good timing out he comes, not with one pair of shoes but with &, yes seven. So giving him the benefit of the doubt I look around to see if there is anyone else in need of shoes near me! Nope! So i nicely (remember I said nicely) ask him'Are all those for me?" Yes he says, as proud as a peacock. And the conversations starts;
Well I didn't ask for seven pair of shoes, I asked for one. I don't want to try on 7 pair of shoes, I only want to try on the shoes that i asked for. "
As he sits down to start opening the boxes, the young lady from before comes over.
I then turn to her and express my displeasure in Nordstroms policy.
"I understand that Nordstroms policy wants you to bring out seven pair of shoes, however, I didn't ask for seven, your sales associate doesn't know me or know anything about me. he doesn't even know what style I like, yet you take it upon yourself, to guess what type of customer I am. You don't know what I do for a living or where I am going to wear these shoes. Therefore i find your policy invasive. As I am talking to the girl, the man is just sitting there with his moth wide open, thank goodness there were no flies, he would have caught them all.
I turned and apologized to him and made note he only followed his company's policy. he then continued to try opening the boxes and looked at me and said we don't have the one you want, but you can try on another shoe for size. Please that doesn't even make sense. Seeing the other shoes were not even Tory Burch.
So sorry, Nordstrom, no shoe no buy! And a letter to corporate.

Then we go upstairs, Yikes, my friend wants to find a Tory Burch embellished tank. A young girl approaches and my friend explains what the tank looks like and inquires as to whether or not they will carry it, As the young girl in the middle of the conversation walks away to grab a arm load of clothing, from another client we stand there a little dazed. She comes back and questions the knowledge of my friend as to whether or not it is really Tory Burch, hahaha. As my Friend is wearing Tory Burch! Good gracious! She finally after being interrupted I am sure by a customer that she is familiar with , my friend leaves her name and phone number so that if and when the girl realizes it is a 125$ tank she'll call her. And by the way the salesperson never told us her name, so we didn't ask!
We have not left Nordstrom yet and this was the beginning. A word of advice to all sales people.
listen to what the customer is not only Saying outloud" but saying between the lines, think about what you should do and say, then rethink it, then say it. In sales Nordstrom lost between the 2 of us, 2 tubes of lipstick @ 27$, 1 pair of Tory Burch shoes at 295$ and a Tory Burch tank at 125.

Total lost $474! wouldn't you want that in your pocket?